Ubisoft Game Lab Competition 2023: Fond Memories of Arcade Games

The Ubisoft Game Lab Competition is a contest that invites students from Quebec universities to develop, in 10 weeks, playable video game prototypes that respond to the theme, mandate and constraints provided by a jury of Ubisoft professionals.

“Tell me what arcade game thou playeth, and I shall tell you who thou art.” With the 13th annual Ubisoft Game Lab Competition being all about arcades, we were dying to know the games that our jury and mentors used to play.

Chadi Lebbos – VP Production Intelligence
Jury president

I was really impressed by Contra. I used to play this game from the age of 13 to 16. I had fun playing against all my friends.”

Simon Girard – IT Team Manager
Mentor for a Université Laval team 

I’d say Mortal Kombat 2 or Top Gun (the entire series). Multiplayer games are always way better in my opinion!”

Tarik Azzouni – Gameplay Programmer
Mentor for a Champlain College of Vermont (Montreal campus) team

“For me it was Virtua Cop and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time. My brother and I would play them for hours in the 1990s and 2000s. Both were multiplayer games that forced us to work together to win! They are some of my best memories, even though I was never able to last long without my brother’s help.”

Linna Lim – Gameplay Programmer
Mentor for a McGill University team

“Space Invaders! The first time I played was at the Game On exhibit at the Science Centre with my best friend back in 2015. The concept is crazy simple, and it gets harder as you go. When you lose at some point, you just want to start over to beat your record!”

Alexander Kurth – Generalist Programmer
Mentor for a Université du Québec à Chicoutimi team

“For me, I’d say the game Nidhogg. I used to play it in between classes with my classmates to unwind or just to get to know each other. The combat system is easy to learn but difficult to master, which makes each game quite unique. The game is an emotional roller coaster: you could lose the game—or lose a friendship—at any given moment.”

We would like to thank our mentors for playing along and for making us want to get back to those good old classics! This should keep us waiting until we discover the winning games at the Game Lab Competition, during the grand finale on May 4th!